History of the Acadians in Walpole

THE OLD HOUSE IN WALPOLE -Where Lived and
Died in Exile Jacques D'Entremont

(The Walpole Times - May 1966)

The following article, dealing with the early history of Walpole,
was written by
Rev. Clarence J. d'Entremont on 71 Center Street. Fairhaven. It
is hoped that
the people of Walpole will take interest in this article which
tells them of a phase
of their history of which they may not know too much. By Rev.
Clarence J. d'Entremont
The student of American literature knows through the study of
Longfellow's
poem Evangeline of the Expulsion of the Acadians. These people,
of French
origin, lived in Nova Scotia, then called "Acadie",
where "the richest was poor,
and the poorest lived in abundance." By the Treaty of
Utrecht, in 1713, their land
passed into the hands of England. Summoned by their conquerors to
pledge
allegiance to the crown of England, they asked to remain neutral
in case of war
so that they would not have to fight against their mother
country. For this reason
the whole population, about 18,000 of them, less some 2000
fugitives, were
boarded on ships and vessels, between 1755 and 1759, even up to
the Treaty of
Paris, in 1763, and "scattered like dust and leaves"
all along the American
Atlantic coasts and the shores of England. Massachusetts received
about two
thousand of them and placed them, under its care, in its
different towns.
There is in Walpole the remains of a cellar on which stood the
house
where lived in exile, with his family, one of these Acadians,
Jacques d'Entremont
(1680-1759), some of Jacques Mius d'Entremont and of Anne de
Saint-Etienne
de la Tour, and where he died July 28, 1759 (1). This house
belonged at the time
to Jeremiah Dexter. Isaac N. Lewis, in his history of Walpole
(2), calls this house
"the old house", although at the time of Jacques
d'Entremont it must not have
been so old, as Jeremiah Dexter, who probably built it, is
mentioned for the first
time in 1748 in the history of Walpole (3).
Jacques d'Entremont was, with the members of his family, among
the 70
Acadians from Baccareau Passage, Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, whom
Colonel
Prebble, after burning all their buildings, 44 in all, brought to
Boston on a Friday,
the last day of April, 1756 (4). They were destined to North
Carolina; a vessel
under the command of Thomas Hancock, was to take them there. But
after
embarkation, they came back on shore and refused to re-embark.
May 11th,
Jacques Amirault and Joseph d'Entremont addressed a letter to the
Lieutenant
Governor of Massachusetts and his Council stating the reasons why
the group
refused to go to North Carolina, begging that they be allowed to
stay in
Massachusetts (5).
Three days later, May 14th, Thomas Hancock, who it would seem had
written of his own hand the petition of May 11th, to which
Jacques Amirault and
Joseph d'Entremont affixed their marks, appeared before the
lieutenant governor
and his council to discuss this matter. It was decided to give to
these Acadians a
delay of 14 days, during which they would be under the care of
Thomas Hancock
(6). The 14 days having elapsed, it was decided to distribute
these families in the
several seaports of the "Province".
August 20th, 1756, we find in Marblehead, Jacques d'Entremont
with his
family, that is, his wife, nee Marguerite Amirault, and his
children, Ann, (b. 1732),
Marguerite, (b. 1734), Joseph, (b. 1739), Paul, (b.1742), and
Benoni, (b. 1745)
(7). Jacques d'Entremont and Marguerite Amirault had had at least
two other
children, namely, Jacques, the oldest, married in 1753 to
Marguerite Landry,
exiled with his family to England and then to Cherbourg, France,
where he died in
or before 1767; and Marie, married to Rene Landry, brother of
Marguerite.
In the summer of 1756, Anne d'Entremont married in Marblehead
Abel
Duon who had been among the 70 Acadians who arrived from Cape
Sable to
Boston April 39th and who was quartered at Marblehead with the
d'Entremont
family. The following year, that is June 1st, 1757, we find this
family in Medfield,
along with Paul and Benoni, sons of Jacques d'Entremont (8).
March 1st, 1758, Jacques d'Entremont, his wife, his daughter
Marguerite
and his son Joseph are found in Walpole, where they had been
transferred (9).
A few months later, on November 8th, 1758, Joseph d'Entremont
sent a
petition to the lieutenant governor, stating that being in
Walpole with his aged
father and mother, a brother and a sister, while another brother,
a brother-in-law,
a sister and her child were in Medfield, asking, for different
reasons, if it would be
possible for the family to be all united together at the same
place. January 2nd,
1759, this petition was sent to a committee who, January 13th,
decided that the
members of the family who were in Medfield would be removed to
Walpole (10).
It would seem that this decision was not carried out, not
immediately at least,
because June 1st of that year, Benoni, Abel and his wife are
still in Medfield (11);
these two last are still there August 22nd, 1760 (12).
After the death of Jacques d'Entremont, July 28th, 1959 (13), his
son
Joseph and his daughter Marguerite are transferred August 22nd,
1760, to
Chelsea (14), at which date Paul and Benoni are said to be
"retained" in Walpole
with their ......
We can recapitulate these events in the following chronological
order:
- April 30th, 1756, arrival in Boston of the family of Jacques
d'Entremont;
- August 20th, 1756, this family is in Marblehead, along with
Abel Duon;
- Summer of 1756, marriage in Marblehead of Abel Duon and Anne
d'Entremont;
- June 1st, 1757, Abel Duon, his wife, Paul and Benoni are in
Medfield;
- March 1st, 1758, Jacques d'Entremont, his wife, Marguerite and
Joseph
are in Walpole;
Between the preceding and the following dates, Paul is
transferred to
Walpole;
- November 8th, 1758, petition of Joseph so that all the family
would be
united;
- January 13th, 1759, it is decided that the family would be
united in
Walpole;
- July 28th, 1759, Jacques d'Entremont dies in Walpole;
- August 22nd, 1760: Paul and Benoni are "retained" in
Walpole with their
mother; Joseph and Marguerite are sent to Chelsea; Abel and Anne
are retained
in Medfield.
On August 23rd, 1866, "Captain Amiro" received a permit
to clear his
vessel from Boston for Quebec. Undoubtedly this captain was Ange
Amirault,
who, ten years earlier, in the month of February of 1756, being
not yet 20 years of
age, sailed in his small vessel from Cape Sable to the shores of
Massachusetts
to ask of his future father-in-law and mother-in-law, already in
exile, the hand of
their daughter, Natalie Belliveau, who, like himself, was still
in liberty at Cape
Sable (16). The fact is that the Amiraults, the Belliveaux, the
d'Entremonts and
the Duons arrived by sea (17) to Nova Scotia, on their way to
Quebec, at the end
of the summer of 1766, 200 years ago, this very year. Having
received from the
civil authorities of Halifax the permission to stay in Nova
Scotia and the promise
of the service of priest, they settled the following year, in
1767, in Pubnico, the
land of their ancestors (18).
While in Walpole, the d'Entremont family lived in "the old
house" of
Jeremiah Dexter (19).
Lewis tells us that this house was near the old cemetery, corner
of Main
and Kendall streets (20). A couple of old people, well in their
80's, now
deceased, maybe of the Everett family, whom we met in Walpole in
1957,
residing across from the old cemetery where they had lived
practically all their
lives, told us that the old house of Jeremiah Dexter, which they
had seen in their
young days, was located west of the cemetery, of Main street and
of Neponset
River, about 100 feet north of the dam.
Last August, Mr. K.W. Arthur, residing at 16 Pemberton street,
showed us,
at some 150 yards behind this house, the remains of an old
cellar, the only one in
this vicinity, corresponding exactly to the location given us in
1957 by the old
people mentioned above. Thus there can be no doubt as to the
precise spot
where stood the old house of Jeremiah Dexter, which was occupied
by the family
of Jacques d'Entremont during its exile in Walpole.
How long did this family occupy this house? Surely between March
1,
1758, and August 22, 1760, that is at least 2 1/2 years. Probably
they had been
there before, and surely after. But we have no documents to tell
us precisely how
long.
We have no documents to tell us neither who lived in this house
after the
Acadians. The old people who located for us the house told us
that its last
occupants were members of a colored family by the name of Diggs.
The census
of 1880 of Walpole gives, in fact, the name of the family of
Richard H. Diggs, as
living in Walpole at this date, himself a carpenter, being 41
years of age, his wife,
Sarah E., 37, and eight children, ranging in age from 18 years to
4 months, all
said to be mulattos. Twins of 3 years and the baby of 4 months
were born in
Massachusetts; all the others were born in Maryland (21).
After the census of 1880, this family did not stay long in this
house,
because our informants told us that the house was demolished
"about 75 years
ago." As this was said in 1957, we have to conclude that it
disappeared around
1882.
What were the conditions of life of those who occupied the old
house of
Jeremiah Dexter? Let us say first that the house they lived in
was very small. By
what is left of the foundations, it measured 24 by 28 feet. There
is nothing left to
make us believe that it was any larger. Built on the edge of a
hill, a bank served
as the northwest wall of the cellar, which must have been about 8
feet high, 23
feet long and 19 feet wide, the foundations being about two feet
and a half thick.
One could enter into the house directly from the hill, and into
the cellar directly
from the lower ground.
Traces of erosion running toward the cellar are an indication
that those
who occupied the house had to cope with melting snow and the
water flowing
down hill on a rainy day.
On the other hand, the Neponset River, at about 100 feet from the
house,
could overflow and its waters reach the cellar. These floods
occur now and then.
Some have their marks in the history of Walpole, one at the
beginning of the last
century, and another more specially during the night of February
12 to 13, 1886,
and the following day, when the whole valley of the Neponset
River in Walpole
was inundated. Directly south of the house, there was, and there
is still, a dam,
which was then covered by a foot of water which finally broke it
to a depth of five
feet (220.
A fact worthy to be mentioned here, which is surely by a
coincidence, is
that at about 75 feet south of the cellar there is the
distinctive marks of the
Acadians: an apple tree. And what is more striking is that it is
the only apple tree
that can be found for least a mile or so around: This is what we
learned at the
Norfolk County Agricultural High School of Walpole. The apple of
this tree, which
is still beautiful and in abundance, is a "seedling of the
Rhode Island Greening,"
as identified by the school just mentioned. This variety was
grown and utilized
extensively in the past for household use. The greening is an
excellent apple for
pies.
We will not attempt to give the details of the hardships that
these Acadians
had to suffer while in exile, here in Walpole or elsewhere. It is
sufficient to glance
over some of the documents of the Massachusetts Archives,
especially volumes
23 and 24, and scan the items that different town had to furnish
for their support
to have an idea of their poverty and distress. Doctors' bills,
like those on record
for the care of old Jacques d'Entremont, suffering from a
"canser," speak more
loudly of their physical conditions than any descriptions we
could give.
In the vicinity of "the old House" of Jeremiah Dexter,
a great activity has
been going on from the middle of the 18th century, and thus
during the time of the
Acadians, up to the end of the 19th. On these premises, known as
the "Stetson
Privilege," (23) a certain John Hall, already in 1754, had
on the Neponset River,
where is the dam, a saw mill. The Acadians witnessed this mill in
operation.
In 1779, John Hall was associated with his son-in-law, John
Cleveland,
who was the proprietor of the mill. John Cleveland, with Jeremiah
Dexter and
others, operated here also a blacksmith's show (24).
In 1794, we find that the saw mill had been converted into a
grist mill, the
property of Ebenezer Hartshorn.
Two years later, in 1796, Joshua Stetson, from whom are derived
the
terms "Stetson Privilege" and "Stetson Pond,"
cam from Randolph to Walpole
and bought what became afterwards the "Stetson
Privilege" and began to
manufacture on Main street farm implements. Everett Stetson, his
son, took over
between 1827 and 1830 after which, till 1869 another son, Joshua,
Jr., had here
a cotton factory which became very prosperous and which, in 1869,
was taken
over by his own son, Edward P. Stetson, who operated it till 1890
(25).
The land northeast of the dam, which used to belong to Jessie W.
Bently,
is now the property of the Union Oil Company of Boston, who
operates on Main
street the gasoline station "Philip's 66." This company
is the proprietor of the land
on which stood the old house of Jeremiah Dexter.
A path from Pemberton street, north of the premises we are
talking about,
starting about half way up hill, passes northwest and west of the
cellar and leads
to the dam. This path is about the dividing line between the land
owned by the
Union Oil Company of Boston and the land of Herbert Davis, who is
proprietor of
a part, at least, of the hill northwest of "Stetson
Pond."
With regard to the place where Jacques d'Entremont was buried,
Isaac N.
Lewis, in his history of Walpole (26), speaking of the Acadians
who had lived
here, says: "Some did not survive their experience here,
and, exiled and alone,
found a too ready grave in the old near-by cemetery" (27).
From this, some
authors, like De Lue (28), who refers to this paragraph of Lewis,
have concluded
that Jacques d'Entremont was buried in "The Old Burial
Place," in Walpole,
corner of Main and Kendall streets. But it is not so.
Jacques d'Entremont was buried in Roxbury, a distance of between
15 and
20 miles from Walpole, in the "Eliot Cemetery," at
"Andrew Coyle Square,"
corners of Eustis and Washington streets. Here is what Father
Ferdinand
Blanchet, pastor of St. Peter's parish, West Pubnico, Nova
Scotia, wrote in 1860,
in the church registers, with regard to Jacques d'Entremont:
"Last year, July 26,
1859, I have celebrated the centennial Mass that his descendants
asked me to
say for the repose of his soul. His tombstone can still be seen
around Boston
(Rockberry), (sic), and Louis d'Entremont, Esquire, now deceased,
has read there
the inscription on it, 5 years ago.
This Louis d'Entremont was a merchant at West Pubnico. Born in
1803,
son of Charles Celestin and father of Marin, Avite, etc., whose
names are still
very familiar to the people of the place, he had known perfectly
well the two sons
of Jacques d'Entremont, who had lived ever since their return
from exile in West
Pubnico, namely Paul, who died July 19, 1841, and Benoni, who
died February
21 of the same year: Louis was their grand-nephew. Surely it is
from them that
Louis, who was interested in the history of his family, learned
where his great-
grandfather was buried. It was the very year that he visited the
tomb in Roxbury,
in 1855, that he died, on Christmas Day.
Forty years ago, in 1926, Abraham d'Entremont, of West Pubnico,
also,
son of Mathurin, now deceased whose family is known to have been
very
interested in the history of the Acadians, went to the Eliot
Cemetery in search of
the tombstone of Jacques d'Entremont. It is his mother who would
have told him
of the location where it had been seen. The mother of Abraham was
a niece of
Louis d'Entremont, by his wife, who would have told her niece
where Louis had
discovered the tombstone.
The author of these lines learned about this during the Summer of
last
year from Henry Boudreau of Brockton, then close to 90 years of
age, who died
this last month of March; he had accompanied 40 years ago his
brother-in-law,
Abraham d'Entremont to the Eliot Cemetery and had looked with him
for the
tombstone. But the tombstone was not there any more. In fact,
already in 1872,
the name of Jacques d'Entremont does not appear on the list of
those whose
tombstones were still readable at this cemetery (29). It is not
surprising, because
it is most probably that the tombstone on the grave of Jacques
d'Entremont was
only a slate stone erected by the piety of his sons, which was
destined to last but
for a limited time.
At the time that Jacques d'Entremont died there was in Roxbury
another
cemetery, that of the Catholic parish of St. Joseph, which
cemetery is no longer in
existence. This cemetery, being private, would not have
accommodated the body
of Jacques d'Entremont, who was under the care of the government
of Boston.
Similarly, the other cemeteries in the vicinity of Roxbury, in
existence at the time,
which we have all visited, could neither have received, for
different reasons, his
remains.
We may ask ourselves why he was buried in Roxbury instead of
Walpole,
where there was, right close to where he died, a cemetery
similar, seemingly, to
the Eliot Cemetery in Roxbury. We believe that the real reason is
the following:
By the names of those buried in Walpole, it is obvious that this
cemetery was a
"private" cemetery, that is exclusively for the people
of the town of Walpole; while
by the names that appear on the tombstones of the Eliot Cemetery,
which
comprise statement, officials of the government, officers of the
army, judges and
the like, it would seem that this cemetery was of a more
"public" nature, in the
sense that it belonged to the government, or at least was under
its care. The
"French Neutrals," as the exiled Acadians were called,
being under the care of
the government, Jacques d'Entremont was buried in the cemetery of
the
government.
And that is the story of "the old house" of Jeremiah
Dexter, where lived in
exile with his family Jacques d'Entremont and in which he died.
And that is the
story of the cemetery where repose his ashes. We believe that
this constitutes
the only case in which has been located the exact spot where
lived an Acadian
family in exile in what is now the New England States, and the
cemetery where
one of these Acadians is buried.
Speaking of these Acadians, Willard De Lue (30), after telling of
their
return to their native land, says: "Thus they pass from our
history - But whate'er
the story, Walpole saw no more of them." We may say that the
descendants of
Jacques d'Entremont now number well over 5000, including all the
d'Entremonts
and all the Duons, (now bearing the name of "d'Eon"),
and most of the other
Acadians now living of having taken origin in the Pubnicos, Nova
Scotia, of whom
the undersigned who has come back to tell to the people of
Walpole the story of
his ancestor whom they had sheltered in "the old house"
of Jeremiah Dexter.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Jacques Mius d'Entremont, baron of Popbomcoup, was the son of
Philippe
Mius d'Entremont, (1601-1700), who came to Acadia in 1651 with
Charles de
Saint-Etienne de la Tour and who in 1653 was made lieutenant
governor of
Acadia and received the barony of Pobomcoup, (now Pubnico, Nova
Scotia); he
was named king's attorney about 1670, an office he held until
1688. - Anne de
Saint-Etienne de la Tour was the daughter of Charles de
Saint-Etienne de la
Tour, governor of Acadia.
(2) "A History of Walpole, Mass.", 1905, p. 97
(3) Willard De Lue, "The Story of Walpole", 1925, p.
297.
(4) The Boston Weekly News-Letter, Thursday, May 6, 1756.
(5) Mass. Archives, XXIII, 69.
(6) Mass. Archives, Council Records, XIII, (1755-1759), 80.
(7) Mass. Archives, XXIII, 106.
(8) Mass. Archives, XXIII, 406.
(9) Mass. Archives, XXIII, 626.
(10) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 76, 77A, 108, 110.
(11) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 108.
(12) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 389, 392. - Benoni's name appears, at
this date, in
these two documents, in the lists of the Acadians quartered in
Medfield and of
those quartered in Walpole. But most likely he was transferred
around this date
from Medfield to Walpole, from where his brother and sister,
Joseph and
Marguerite, were leaving for Chelsea.
(13) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 272.
(14) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 389, 392. - De Lue, p. 117.
(15) Mass. Archives, XXIV, 389, 392.
(16) From the French newspaper, "L'Evangeline",
Weymouth, Nova Scotia,
Thursday, July 13, 1893, article by Placide Gaudet on the
Amirault family. - Ange
Amirault, who came back from exile with this group, was a
seafarer most of his
life. - See H. Leander d'Entremont, "The Baronnie de
Pombcoup and the
Acadians", Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 1931, p. 54.
(17) They did not "walk back overland from Boston through
Maine, to their old
homes:, as says De Lue, p. 119.
(18) The Yarmouth Herald, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Wednesday,
November 25,
1964. - La Societe Historique Acadienne, Sixieme Cahier, 1964,
Mancton, New
Brunswick, p. 24. (11).
(19) Lewis, p. 97. - De Lue, p. 115.
(20) Lewis, p. 97.
(21) U.S. Tenth Census - 1880 - vol. 22 - Enumeration Dist. No.
504,
Supervisor's Dist. No. 60, Page No. 5, Schedule 1: Inhabitants of
Walpole, Mass.
(22) De Lue, pp. 274-276.
(23) De Lue, p. 240.
(24) De Lue, p. 261.
(25) De Lue, pp. 240, 261, 262.
(26) Lewis, p. 98.
(27) There has been in Walpole, apart from the d'Entremont
family, other exiled
Acadians, the families of Pierre Landry and of Pierre Robichaud.
(28) De Lue, p. 117. - H. Leander d'Entremont, op. cit., p. 51.
(29) Annual Report of the Cemetery Department of the City of
Boston, for the
Fiscal year 1903-1904, Boston, (1904), pp. 56 at sqq.: Epitaphs,
First Burying
Place in Roxbury, Copied in 1872 by Henry A. May.
(30) De Lue, p. 119.
*****************************************
COMMUNICATION-1925
To the Walpole Times:
In Chapter VII of the Story of Walpole entitled "The
Acadians" there is
reference to a poor family of exiles from Nova Scotia call
"D'Autremont" who were
supported by the town as the story relates. A distinguished
descendant of this
family was in town looking up our records of his family and on
his return wrote me
the following letter which you may use if you wish. - Henry A.
Whiting
The House of d'Entremont was one of the most ancient and
illustrious
houses of Savoy and France. This family originated in the Valley
d'Entremont
which is located in the Savoyan Alps. Rudulf, Lord of d'Entremont
and Montbel,
born about 990, was qualified Lord of the above territories in
1020, and he died in
1040. I have the whole genealogy and history of the family from
his time to the
present.
The Jacques d'Entremont, who died at Walpole, was a descendant of
this
Rudulph or Rudulf, Lord of d'Entremont and Montbel, and in his
veins coursed the
royal blood of France and Italy; the noble blood of the Savoys
and other illustrious
families of Savoy and France; and the noble blood of the
Pacheocos, of Spain,
whose ancestry I have traced way back to the Romans, one of the
family being a
commander in the army of Julius Caesar. Furthermore, this Jacques
was a direct
descendant of the celebrated Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of
France, Gouvenor
of Paris, etc., and the leader of the Huguenot party of France in
the sixteenth
century. It was he, through the cupidity of Catherine de Medicis,
the most wicked
queen in the history of Europe, who was the first victim of the
St. Barthelemy, on
the morning of the 24th of August, 1572. The people of Walpole
should be proud
to have in one of its cemeteries the decaying bones of a person
of such nobility;
and the town of Walpole would do credit to itself by having an
appropriate tablet
place in the cemetery where he was buried, even if at the time of
his demise he
was considered an unwelcome pauper.
Here is the history, in brief, of Jacques d'Entremont and his
family. This
Jacques was the son of another Jacques who had married Anne de La
Tour,
daughter of Charles de La Tour, Gouvenor and owner of Acadia, one
of the
greatest personages in Acadian history and who was well known in
the early
history of Boston. This Jacques, the father, was a son of Sieur
Philippe
d'Entremont, baron of Pobomcoup (now Pubnico, Nova Scotia),
King's Attorney in
Acadia, who had come from France in 1651 and settled Pubnico. He
had
married, in France, Madelein d'Elie du Tillet, related to the
Bourbons.
The Acadians of Cape Sable (Pubnico) were not disturbed in the
general
deportation of 1755, but on April 10, 1756, Governor Lawrence
gave to Major
Prebble, who was leaving Halifax for Boston, an order to call at
Cape Sable and
carry off as many of the inhabitants as he could hold of, and
"to burn and destroy
whatever he could not carry off." On the 22nd he arrived at
Port Latour, landed
167 men, and crossing the point of land, arrived at Cape Sable in
the night and
surprised the Acadians in their beds, captured 72 men, women and
children and
carried them to Boston, after pillaging and burning 44 buildings
and killing all the
cattle, sheep, and swine that they could find. To complete their
work more
thoroughly, they scalped the young son of Joseph d'Entremont (not
the one of
Walpole). They arrived in Boston harbor on the 30th and, after a
month's delay,
they finally decided to let the Acadians "recently
arrived," stay in Massachusetts
and be distributed in the seaport towns between Gloucester and
Plymouth.
On the 5th of June, two families were taken to Marblehead; one
was that
of Jacques Amirault, the other was that of Jacques d'Entremont
who, later,
figured in the history of Walpole. In giving the names of the
family I am including
their subsequent marriages, as follows:
Jacques d'Entremont, born in 1679, died at Walpole, Mass., on
July 28,
1759. Married in 1723.
Marguerite Amirault, his wife, born in 1700, died October 18,
1796.
Their children were:
1. Anne, born in 1732, married at Marblehead in 1756, to Abel
Duon, one
of the exiles, who came over with them.
2. Marguerite, born in 1734, never married.
3. Joseph, born in 1739, died May 20, 1783. Was married, probably
at
Walpole, to Agnes Belliveau. They had nine children, two of whom,
Cyrille and
Marguerite, were born in Massachusetts, the others at Pubnico.
4. Paul, born in 1742, married to Isabel Belliveau. They had six
children.
5. And Benoni, born in 1744, died February 21, 1841. He had
married, at
Pubnico, Anne Marguerite, Pothier, by whom he had nine children.
Benoni was
the first Acadian appointed as a Justice of Court (1791); first
Treasurer of the
District of Argyle (1792).
On the 28th day of October, 1756, Jacques d'Entremont, his wife,
and
daughter, Marguerite, were removed to Walpole. On the same day,
Anne, his
daughter, with her husband and her two younger brothers, Paul and
Benoni, were
removed to Medfield. On the 8th day of November, 1758, Joseph
d'Entremont
petitioned the Council, of Boston, praying that the family might
be reunited, "and it
would be much for their comfort, as well as for their mutual
ease, in the general
support of this family, and of their aged parents, in particular,
if they were all in
the same town;" (Dec. 26, vol. 24) and the prayer of the
petition being granted,
accounts for the new d'Entremonts mentioned in the accounts of
Walpole for
1760.
The family of Jacques d'Entremont, including his widow, went back
to
Pubnico in 1766. It is not probable that they were among those
who went by
land. The tradition of the family says that they built a vessel,
and with other
families, went to Pubnico. These families: three d'Entremont, one
Mius, two
Belliveau, two Amirault, and one Duon. A vessel cleared from
Boston, August
23, 1766, whose captain was an Amiro, and it may have been this
same vessel
that these families went back to Pubnico in.
This family of Jacques d'Entremont, in going back to Pubnico,
went to
settle in the same land of the old barony of their ancestors, and
today there are
more than a thousand persons, issue of the children of this
Jacques d'Entremont,
a majority of whom are living at Pubnico and other villages in
Yarmouth County,
Nova Scotia, while a great many are in Massachusetts, and they
may be found in
Boston, Stoneham, Lynn, Salem and other towns in this state.
Some members of the d'Entremont family were taken to France in
1759.
and there are still a few of their descendants to be found in
that country.
The d'Entremont family of Nova Scotia is represented in the House
of
Representatives by Raymond N. d'Entremont; Louis A. d'Entremont
is Inspector
of Schools for Nova Scotia and Cape Breton; James G. d'Entremont
is Inspector
of Fisheries for Yarmouth County, and many others of the family
hold government
positions.
...can point with...manner by which it received members of this
family, but
in the fact that, considering the condition of affairs of that
period, it took care, for
years, of a family that has grown to be the greatest, and the
only family left of
those of the "Noblesse" who settled Acadia; and I am
sure that, when the facts
are considered by the people of your town, you will take the
initiative in placing an
appropriate table to mark the locality where one of this noble
family was buried.
As already stated, I shall try to visit your town next week.
Very sincerely yours,
H.L. d'Entremont